As wireless communication systems and devices have grown in popularity and functionality, users of wireless communication devices have adopted increasingly fast-paced, mobile lifestyles. Attendant to such active lifestyles is the need to communicate with others and rapidly access information when moving through a wireless communication network and between wireless communication networks. As users increasingly rely on wireless communication systems to obtain and exchange information, wireless communication system resources have become valuable. Consequently, the ability to identify and authenticate users of wireless communication systems has become an imperative part of ensuring that users of a wireless communication system are authorized to use the valuable system resources.
In order to maintain access control over wireless communication system resources, a wireless communication network can apply an authentication process to a wireless communication device when the device attempts to use resources within the particular network. For users who move between several networks while maintaining a conversation or accessing information, repeated authentication procedures can delay, disrupt or otherwise degrade the user's ability to use the wireless communication system. Further, the authentication procedure itself can consume system resources that could be allocated elsewhere within the wireless communication system.